Pampered Chef is excellent quality for the most part. There is the very odd item that doesn't work as well as a person would like but this is the exception rather than the rule. It is also pricey. The onion chopper was passed along to me by a friend who was cleaning out her kitchen stuff. She isn't keen on cooking from scratch I don't think. I find it very handy. Didn't know it was one of those things they flogged on tv until I just looked it up. I'm sure you can find it on ebay for a lot less. PS you still have to do SOME onion work so tears will still be shed. It does do a nice neat job and saves time though. I just bought a cheap knife set at Costco the other day. We will see how long they hold their razor sharp edge. They are the color coated blades with matching blade covers. For what I paid if they last a year I will be satisfied. Here is a link that might be useful: Viladia chop wizard

Hi Cathy - while testing your own pH isn't recommended by the USDA guidelines the FDA does approve the use of litmus and pH meters, with some attached provisions, (edited to add - for acidic foods, low-acid and/or mixtures of low-acid foods are not included) for commercial sales. Your state and county guidelines for commercial sales should provide the rules applicable to you as they vary from state to state.. That said, for non-commercial use with Apple-Pear Butter (assuming no windfalls or Asian Pears were used) pH isn't normally a concern as the only risks are molds and yeasts. Many fruit products are canned without the addition of lemon or sugar and often the lemon called for is for color preservation only. Otherwise the fruits themselves provide the proper level of acidity for safe canning. Reduced Sugar or sugar supplement Apple Butter does call for a little longer processing time - 1/2 pints or pints for 15 min. in a BWB with the time adjusted for altitude. Hope this answers your question. If not let us know. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Reduced Sugar Apple Butter This post was edited by digdirt on Wed, Oct 2, 13 at 16:33

go to the harvest forum for this question. oil does NOT preserve and is very dangerous. Best to use NO OIL. If It was ME. I would preserve the peppers plain in 100% vinegar and then stuff them when I go to eat them. But I like the taste of vinegar. at the time you remove the peppers you could soak them in water to remove some vinegar flavor then stuff and eat. vinegar will keep them crisp better and longer and safer than water and vinegar. I always use 100% vinegar and never add any water.

Sorry for my knee jerk reaction. Here's the science behind my comment. It is always recommended NOT to use commercial jars because they are not of the same heft/thermal shock resistance as jars sold specifically for home canning. The risk with the glass part of the jar from a random store product, is that it is much easier to break under the wide variety of boiling water and freezing conditions that it might be put to in a home canning situation by the average home canner. Small cracks and chip can also compromise the seal. I myself am an inveterate jar dropper/jar jostler, and have had a few memorable thermal shock mistakes in my day . . . The second problem is the lids. The enamel or metal coating is thin and could get nicked or broken, causing the seal to fail or rust to get a foothold. They are not designed for reuse. However, as someone who has canned for 30 years and also studied and used old canning tools and techniques, I find myself being cynical and disappointed at how increasingly wasteful the process has become. I have seen canning jars and lids get thinner over the years, with obvious research going in to just how thin they can make the lid coatings and rubber gasket and jar, so that it can withstand one use, but is likely to fail upon a second or god-forbid a third . . . Quite frankly modern lids have such thin rubber that I am starting to find seal failures upon first use occasionally. I've also seen in recent times, glass, which is a relatively easy product to recycle, become un-recyclable due to China stopping accepting it. That is pretty ironic during times we decry the loss of American jobs. But we have been conditioned to not want or like the recycled glass products by the plastics industry, so they are no longer economical. And what good are canning jars and rubber gasket that you can re-use for thirty years, where's the profit in that? Hence the development of new safety rules and the disappearance of the older jars and seals from the market. Always with the sly safety reference, but if you understand the science, it's mostly marketing. Some are a little less "fool-proof" than the newer methods, but then why have we become such a group of fools? (Rhetorical and exaggerated comment). Not saying it's not great to develop easier canning methods, for those novice or wanting to extend as little effort as possible, but that doesn't make older methods unsafe when employed by someone who knows what they are doing. Not pooh poohing real safety science mind you. But what is no longer or never rigorously tested, is not necessarily safe or not safe. We can no longer say because there is no data . . . I rarely buy commercial jams. So when I did due to just having a canning dry spell, and also a canning jar shortage, I looked at the jars from some recently purchased jams, and said, "No reason I can't reuse these. Glass looks thick enough and jar lids are fresh, good rubber, and have pop top so I can monitor the seal. Not saying this is going to become my "go to" way of doing it, but at least two glass jars were kept from the landfill!